11 February 2011

In the new kitchen there is this wall. And its huge. At first we were kinda stumped as to what we were going to put there..some huge art, multiple frames, we didnt know! But then of course, J and his brilliant mind, came up with this driftwood art idea. It is so perfect because it takes up the huge space, was super cheap to make, and has a verse on it that we love to be reminded by daily.Here's the process:

Purchase the supplies: Four 6' fence slats and one 2x2x8 piece of wood

Cut down the slats to the desired length {we cut ours down to around 5 feet}

Have the wife {me} attempt to use the circular saw for the first time, to cut a little more off

Sand down the slats enough to remove the grainy finish and expose the wood

Attach two 2x2's cut to just under the height of the driftwood piece {for ours: each piece was just under 2ft. long}. Use gorilla glue {or liquid nails} and use two wood screws through the 2x2, into each slat.

Next, take a hammer, chisel, etc. and beat that wood up. Lots. This creates even more character in the wood, making it look even less 'perfect'. Make sure you pay extra attention to the edges, the especially deserve a beating;)

Now comes time for staining the wood. We used a homemade stain composed of: Steel Wool and vinegar. You take a plastic or glass {or not, considering ours cracked-oops!} container and fill it with white vinegar and a steel wool pad. Let it sit for about three days for a lighter steel stain, and the longer you let it sit, the darker steel stain it will be. FYI: the stain goes on fairly clear...BUT.. it definitely darkens over time on the wood. Ours darkened about 5 shades darker over the next few hours

Let it sit overnight, mostly to get rid of the vinegar smell {please for the love of God, leave yours outside. DONT, I repeat, DONT, leave yours in your house overnight.} Next, we added two 2-Hole 'D' Ring Hangers to the back. Once secure, attached a metal 16 gauge wire across the back

Thank you for all your comments and verses, we ended up choosing the verse 1st John 3:18 "Let us not love with words or tongues but with actions and in truth".We traced it out in Sharpie using a projector for guidance, after we hung it on the wall. We used the program Powerpoint to layout the verse. Once outlined, we used our handy dandy wood burning kit that we got from Michaels store, for $30-which we plan on using for many more projects. We seriously felt like we were back in elementary school using that wood burning pen. Didn't yall do that too when growing up? Maybe it was just each of our crazy craft parents.

Once finished, we realized the stain was so dark that it was hard to read the verse, sooo... we sanded it with some medium grit sandpaper, and it lightened it up quite a bit

Drum roll please....

What do yall think?

We love it. It takes up most of the wall, it is rustic, it adds a great texture to the room, its a great daily reminder, and to top it off, here is the price break down:

Wood: $10

'D' Ring Hangers: $5

Metal Wire: $4

Wood burning pen that we will use many,many, more times:$30

Stain: Already had. But if this was our first time making it, it costs about $3

So technically paid $49 to make this project, but when I think of how many other projects we can do with that $30 pen, I get giddy!

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